In a Day and Age Where Threats Abound, Water-Filled Barricades Will Line Rose Parade Route for Third Year

The Pasadena City Council Monday night is expected to award a contract to a Montebello-based company to again position 400 water-filled barriers at 65 street intersections and 40 private business driveway aprons along the route of the Rose Parade on January 1, 2019.

The City started deploying the water-filled barriers along the 2017 Rose Parade route in response to terrorist truck attack incidents in Europe in the weeks leading up to that year’s parade.

Earlier this month, the City Council approved a 36-percent increase in the amount of its three-year contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, from $1.1 million to $1.5 million, after the Sheriff’s Dept. explained they would need to deploy additional personnel and extend their working hours in response to increasingly stringent security and traffic control requirements.

On New Year’s Eve, the Pasadena Police Department will again close Colorado Blvd. and a number of intersections along the parade route “to provide a safer environment for the public attending the parade,” according to an Agenda Report for Monday’s City Council meeting prepared by Interim City Police Chief John Perez. Only authorized public safety and emergency vehicles will be given access, when necessary.

Last New Year’s Day was the first time the route was closed to general vehicular traffic the night before the parade.

Perez said the closure of Colorado Blvd. and intersections along the route will start at 11 p.m. on December 31.

For this year’s Water Wall Barricade Rental project, the City published a Notice Inviting Bids on October 18, and two vendors submitted bids by the October 30 deadline.

Of the two, the police department is recommending that the contract be awarded to JCL Traffic Services in Montebello, which also provided water barricade services during the 2017 and 2018 Rose Parade.

The recommended cost of the contract for the 2019 Rose Parade is $51,000, which includes a contingency to cover any unforeseen changes during the planning of the parade.

In 2017, JCL’s contract for the project cost $31,357. Last January, the contract was for a cost of $46,465.

Perez is asking the City Council to authorize City Manager Steve Mermell to sign the contract with JCL Traffic Services for an amount not to exceed $51,000 over a one-year period, with the option for two additional one-year extensions at the same annual amount for a total contract length of three years.

Aside from the Pasadena Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department providing traffic control and security services, several federal agencies – among them the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, Border Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – also deploy personnel and resources in Pasadena to ensure the safety and security of people attending the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Game.